We text pundits tend to be the opposite of Dorian Gray. As we decay dismayingly in the flesh, the headshots over our columns remain as youthful as the day they were shot (typically about a decade ago).Anyway, I finally got my hair cut and ten hours of sleep, so, I figured that this was as good as it's going to get, and I got my picture taken over the weekend. I suppose I should have somebody Photoshop it a little, but, all in all, it came out okay.
In contrast, here's the smaller, less-high def 2000 headshot of me at 41 that I had used for years. I'm not really the redhead I looked in that shot -- we were just using old-fashioned print film in a room lit by incandescent lightbulbs (I didn't want any flashbulbs to show off my wrinkles), which gave a pleasantly warm but unrealistic glow to the color tone.
Especially after seeing Charlie Kaufman's upcoming movie "Synecdoche, New York," his first since "Eternal Sunshine," in which Philip Seymour Hoffman is beset by ten or twelve diseases
while aging 40 years, I'd say, overall, I've got nothing to complain about. It's been a healthy, happy decade for me, much of which I owe to you, my readers, editors, and patrons.Copyright photos by Steve Sailer 2008 and 2000
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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69 comments:
Nooo! You look like a scary wannabe-hip oldster in the new thing. Much prefer your goofy nerd stylings in the old one. You must let your badassness come out in the truth of your writings, not that scary greaser shot.
Dont worry about denying your age, you look eternally old in the classic pic.
Seriously, keep thinking I'm going to be mugged every time I refresh this once comforting website.
ZOMG! What a long forehead!
The receding hairline helps.
Have you lost weight since 2000? Do you exercise regularly?
Good point about the Dorian Gray headshots of most pundits. Joe Sobran kept the same circa 1975 shot as the standard thumbnail for over thirty years, and many a paleocon dinner club was shocked by the actual man who showed up to keynote.
This new generation of bloggers, for good or for ill, has little regard for keeping up such pretenses, and regularly sprinkle their blogs with new pics. Think of a guy like Matt Yglesias--his readers have all seen him evolve over the past six years from the baby-faced Harvard lad with a fairly slim waistline, into the bearded, chunky Jonah Goldberg of the Left
I like this recent action shot from the TeeVee better.
Not sure the Van Dyke goes with the smile. The formerly full (if neatly trimmed) beard gave you the appearance of a friendly academic. But a Van Dyke is usually worn to connote badness, which is most often seen on Spanish conquistadores, Hells' Angels, and comic book bad guys. If you want one, fine, your writings qualify you. And you have enough male hormones to pull it off. But for heaven's (or hell's) sake, don't smile. Glower.
I don't know - I kind of like the nerd-greaser look - It's sort of PZ Meyers meets Fred Reed.
Not sure the Van Dyke goes with the smile.
Isn't it actually called a goatee?
Whatever the moniker, I often see that style of facial hair on fat men, who must somehow think it makes them look thinner. In reality, the beard accentuates their turkey-wattle jowls and makes them look even fatter.
VERY NICE! YOU ARE SHINING IN THIS PHOTO, MUCH MUCH YOUNGER THAN YOU WERE IN 2000.
I like it.
The overall photo is a bit dark, but you can fix that with Photoshop. Otherwise, looking good!
Yeah, so let's stick with the classic picture. Thanks.
Anon: "was"? Joe Sobran is not dead.
The hairline may be receding, but there is still enough left to cover the horns... ;=)
It wouldn't sell many boxes of chocolates, Steve.
Nice mug, but put on a suit. You're an intellectual.
1. The background on the new photo is too dark, at least on my display. Your hair and clothes merge with it.
2. Couldn't you bring back Mrs. T?
Many years, steve-o! Looking great.
BTW, have you noticed how many men dye their hair these days? Nothing more ridiculous than a guy w/ MPB and crows' feet with chocolate brown hair. Doug Flutie needs to take a page from your book.
--Senor Doug
Hey, Steve, why the long face?
So give us photoshoppers a hi-res image to work with. :-)
Nothing wrong with the leather jacket, although there should be a vintage Ramones t-shirt underneath.
I'm 28 and have decided to freeze my Facebook profile photo to one of me when I was 24 or 25. Far beyond then, we're all in the same boat to a greater or lesser degree. (Though luckily we're not penalized so harshly for it.)
My undergrad female friends have an annoying but pleasant tendency to show off how great they look by changing their Facebook profile photos every couple of weeks, and adding new pictures of themselves with equal frequency. Y'know, "I dare the camera to catch me looking bad."
This is an objective way to measure the rise and decline of attractiveness over the lifespan: the rate of new pictures added to a public website. I'd bet the typical 20 year-old adds around 500 pictures per year to all of her websites (20 pictures every other week -- not even a full Facebook album).
That's including her own, her updated profile pics, and ones that she appears in on other people's pages.
Dear Steve,
In this picture, we see the left side of your neck, and your neck slopes forward a bit.
You should take a picture with you squarely facing the camera instead.
Less neck, please.
Also, could you wear a suit?
Here's to many more years. Your writing is very much appreciated.
I've thought a lot of things about you, Steve, good and bad but I never thought of you as vain. This is an interesting development and will greatly impact my theory of Steve.
It is a good pic, BTW.
For goodness sake, get out of California before you start wearing make-up!
Good cranial capacity but otherwise you look too folksy and human. U need to look intellectually superior to us, not like just any neighbor on the block.
I recommend 1) to dye the gray out of the sideburns; (2) to wear something that covers the neck, to cover the wrinkles - don't turn ur neck so the wrinkles don't show. Or crop out the neck as in your former pic. And perhaps (3) to wear a suit.
And perhaps pixelate it a bit - yes, *lower* the resolution so the details such as fine wrinkles or minor skin discoloration do not show.
Steve, you look very blue collar. Kinda like Steve the Plumber.
Your look masks a deeper intelligence.
Well, my first reaction is: you look good. Calm, healthy, down-to-earth, reasonably handsome, and comfortable with your age. My second reaction is: you look less Jewish than in the other photo. The cheeks are definitely gentilish. So maybe your ethnic ancestry is half-Jewish, as you suspect, but you can't really tell from the photo.
Btw, I'm a also a brown-haired goatee man :)
Nice photo with a very warm smile! It's hard to make out your hair color due the dark background. Brown? Auburn? Anyways, I'm guessing there is definitely some Celtic ancestry in your background. Pink skin and your hair seems to have a reddish hue. Your eyes and forehead seem to show Anglo-Saxon or German ancestry: think George H.W. Bush, Schwarzenegger, and Mitt Romney. Your eyes seem a touch more rounded and softer than what I'm accustomed to seeing in 100% Germanic men. Below the eyes, your face is fuller than theirs.
As a student once said to me when I (briefly) shaved off my goatee, "You still have your charisma!"
Many happy and healthy decades to come.
Anon: "was"? Joe Sobran is not dead.
Yes, alive. But not writing any new content, really, since his online newsletter folded up early this year. And no new public appearances. He's withdrawn for unspecified health and financial reasons, although the latter can be guessed as "not worth the travel expenses".
There's nothing wrong with the new photo. Ignore the obnoxious comments.
I vote for the return of the beard. The earlier picture evokes a sort of masculine yet friendly effect while the new one makes you look like a bit like a hipster or a blogger or something.
Was the hair thinning gradual or does it only happen when Malcolm Gladwell publishes a book?
P.S.
I'm not a hypocrite with my beard advice. I can't grow one or I would.
Woulda been more effective if you'd had an (unlit) cigar held in your mouth.
Zoom out and show us the Hawg you're straddling, please?
All is not lost. You are not wearing a gold chain. Yet.
What would Maggie think now????
IMHO, you need a full beard or none. Too much neck on display. Suit or acadamic type jacket. Look authorish. Lighting not great/part of your neck looks to light, part too dark.
To judge from your earlier pictures, you're handsome and sanguine in type, but somehow this picture isn't catching it, and I don't think it's just a question of being 10 years on.
Try again--get some professional advice. Look your best--you're in the public eye.
Great to see you looking good, great to hear you're feeling good.
You look great, Steve! But please, please, a little hint...is Synecdoche NY anywhere near as good and interesting as it looks? A simple yes or no will do..."no" will be interpreted as a bloated art-house overreach.
I've got one four-letter word for you:
SHAVE
You look like Todd Palin. Booyah!
I can't believe you use any picture that doesn't have Margaret Thatcher in it. In fact, I can't believe I use any picture that doesn't have Margaret Thatcher in it. For anything.
I don't know Steven, that's an Alpha, sexy picture there; you don't want one of the increasingly desperate and sexually frustrated white females who occasionally post on your blog stalking you do you?
FWIW, I think it's a good photo and an improvement.
You have a sort of suburban sump-pump shiney lawnmower know it all kind of look! Very good! Your wife must be happy to have such a genius with such good looks--once you get used to the forehead!!
I'm amazed you haven't started to shave your head. It seems that most men past 30 end up doing it nowadays.
Nice pic, Steve. An improvement on the old one, IMO. But it looks as if you should consider cropping your hair short. I like the leather jacket too. Badass.
I can't believe it's been almost 10years since I started reading you.
I like this post, Steve, since it allowed Truth to join in with a post which completely made sense and didn't reek of unintelligible internet in-joke. Also, it wasn't racial at all.
[sarcasm off]
... And I think that is the last time I need ever respond to a post by Truth. That should save some time in the future.
Boy, this post has really drawn out the weirdos. Don't you idiots have anything better to do than make snarky and/or bizarre comments? I suspect they're all simply jealous that you're both exceptionally intelligent/insightful and good-looking (and I say that as an exceptionally intelligent and good-looking man myself).
You look fine Steve, ignore the snippy comments to the contrary. You have a friendly, pleasant, smiling, likeable visage, and you dont look 51 to me. I'd have guessed 45.
Speaking of grey...........man Obama sure has gotten grey over the last year hasn't he? Bush has greyed a great deal over the last eight years also.
M
"Anonymous said...
Have you lost weight since 2000?"
I had assumed that Steve was gaining weight - he's been trying to break the news to us with coded messages like "ever expanding Stevosphere".
"Captain Jack Aubrey said...
Nice mug, but put on a suit."
Hey, this is a guy who by his own admission blogs in his skivvies. We're just lucky he put on clothes.
Congratulations on the excellent blog, Steve. You seem to be one of the least ego-driven public intellectuals there are - just interesting analysis, without fear or favor.
Keep up the good work, and many more years.
Not bad. You look like a biker -- all you need is the bandanna and sunglasses. I kind of like that, but leather jackets don't work so well up here in the NW where it's wet all the time.
You Californians have it so easy.
:)
By the way, I just want to point out that, hard as it is to tell from the dark picture, the leather jacket I'm wearing is not black (e.g., Marlon Brando as a motorcycle gang leader in The Wild One). Instead, it's brown (e.g., Sam Shephard as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff).
I like the old Hank Scorpio-look better.
Steve,
You'll never be a real blogger until you get a caricature like Andrew Sullivan.
"Yes, alive. But not writing any new content, really, since his online newsletter folded up early this year. And no new public appearances. He's withdrawn for unspecified health and financial reasons, although the latter can be guessed as "not worth the travel expenses"."
This talk made me look up Joe Sobran on Wikipedia to find out about his help. He has a page in one language besides English and it's Ukrainian. Why?
Steve,
Any chance of you changing your template? I'd recommend making your blog look something like your old site but less busy, but really anything would be an improvement over the stock template you're using now. If you don't know how, maybe one of your readers could volunteer to help.
You'll never be a real blogger until you get a caricature like Andrew Sullivan.
Sure you don't mean "become a caricature like Andrew Sullivan"?
Steve, you need to throw your detractors a bone. I recall you once mentioned an emailer suggesting you retouch your photo with a dastardly moustache and sinister eyebrows. You could throw in a Dracula-esque widow's peak.
That screen capture from TV posted by "rain and said..." above would be good for that purpose. The hand gesture has a certain diabolical, Svengalian look. "When I snap my fingers you will remember nothing you learned in college..."
Of course all this talk about Obama's "good looks" suggests the Uncle Tims among us lack not for imagination and projection. You probably appear as a flaming devil's head to them anyway.
"I don't know Steven, that's an Alpha, sexy picture there; you don't want one of the increasingly desperate and sexually frustrated white females who occasionally post on your blog stalking you do you?" - truth (probably not)
I talked to the other potential stalkers about this.
2 have downloaded the photographs and placed them in picture frames beside their beds
1 prefers mocha shaded men like you, truth, and is busy hiring a hacker to find out where you live
1 only stalks ex-boyfriends and never dated Steve
A few others live overseas but otherwise would stalk him frequently
The one who didn't get back to me is a loose cannon, maybe she is, maybe she isn't so Steve could in fact be the target of unwelcome female attention
Then there are the gay/bisexual stalkers who aren't in the same network. Funny you didn't mention them, truth...
Steve looks like a nice guy.
Hehe, don't you love being picked apart? I sure don't. That's why I still haven't got a facebook, myspace or any social networking page.
My .02
The grey hair works. Plenty sophisticated.
You're too white for the leather jacket. You look like a bikie dressing up for his niece's graduation. Light brown bomber jacket would look better.
You look like you've got a fag stud in your right ear.
I recommend a casual polo and a pencil behind your ear.
You're looking good for your age.
"Then there are the gay/bisexual stalkers who aren't in the same network. Funny you didn't mention them, truth..."
Steve's too old for a gay stalker (sorry bud!)
I just turned 42 and the most wonderful thing about being a handsome man in his 40's is that women notice you more and gays notice you less.
1. You're good looking, and you radiate affability and good naturedness.
2. You look like a blue collar guy, as opposed to, say, Christian Lander. I think it's the goatee. It's not an "ironic" beard, but a sincere straightforward one. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. I guess you just aren't a "whiter" person.
1. The background is too dark and staged. Your old picture looked like maybe you're in your living room or study, and one can envision 30 books to the right of you and 40 to the left. Old picture, friendly and cozy; new picture, not.
2. Wear a buttoned up dress shirt, with either a jacket or, best of all, a sweater (to go with the cozy motif). The open collar, plus the angle, elongates your neck. I say this as a guy with a longer neck than you.
3. The badass biker intellectual look you could definitely pull off, if we didn't all know that you drive a Subaru.
On Sobran, I think he has Ruthenian dna. Looks as if Ruthenian is a term for catholic Ukrainians. Probably more complicated.
Kent Gatewood
You'd be better served by a photograph taken outdoors - like those of book authors that could have been taken by their wife in their backyard. In it you should wear a tie-less collared shirt, and, if it suits you, a sport jacket. Also, a slight, toothless smile - at least in a posed photo - always befits a heterosexual male more than a toothy smile. I offer this - what I intend to be constructive advice - as a hugely impressed admirer of yours.
"you don't want one of the increasingly desperate and sexually frustrated white females who occasionally post on your blog stalking you do you?"
Fatal Attraction was just a dumb movie. In real life, women don't stalk.
I wish I had more female groupies, but females don't read hbd blogs.
Yeah, judging from your large forehead you probably do have some Jewish ancestry back on the line somewhere because Jews are known to have large, sloping foreheads - extra cranial capacity (intelligence) I suppose.
Yeah, judging from your large forehead you probably do have some Jewish ancestry back on the line somewhere because Jews are known to have large, sloping foreheads - extra cranial capacity (intelligence) I suppose.
Nothing like make-it-up-as-you hbd-ers to make you chuckle.
1) Sailer's forehead is by no means noticably sloping beyond normal for white standards.
2) A slope, ceteris parabus, reduces cranial capacity.
"or a blogger or something."
What sort of site is this again?
"Fatal Attraction was just a dumb movie. In real life, women don't stalk."
What about mental ones?
Steve, In your old picture your jewishness is much more obvious. You have lost the geeky,nerdy jewish look. This is strange since most jews features become more exaggerated as they age. I think facial hair like Spielberg,Bronfman, etc.. coupled with weird poses and vests like Freud would vault you back on to the jewish intellectual fashion runway without having to look like a total nut like Einstein. Or butch it up a little more and go for the Jackson Pollock look. How exciting! To be a canvas once again!
MIKE
So, Sailer is part Jewish. Explains why I have no urge to stalk him. Sorry, I only stalk the scots-irish. Probably because they're so cute when angry.
Seriously though, is there some reason for the new pic and the gussied up wikipedia entry? It's been almost a week since the build up and nothing has happened.
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